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Decimalisation.

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Inversnecky

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1 Jan 2021
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You should be relieved that you will no longer encounter some of the many other measurement units that are no longer in regular use, e.g.
barleycorn, rod, link, gill, quart, etc., although horsey people still use furlongs (220 yards).

This will blow your mind:

 

Bevan Price

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22 Apr 2010
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I just don't understand how the Americans came to have different units to us with the same name. I understand that it makes sense for a hundredweight to be 100 pounds, but why does it differ from an Imperial Hundredweight. How many pounds are in a US ton. Is it 20 US hundredweights, ie 2000 pounds? This calculates as 1 US ton = 0.89 Imperial tons, which is the conversion factor google gives.

Which of the three different types of ton do the aircraft industry use? The units and the confusion they cause could be disastrous. You only have to look at the story of the Gimli Glider to see what could happen. It's bad enough trying to calculate car mpg when the US gallon is only 84% of an Imperial Gallon.
The Imperial Hundredweight had origins similar to the bakers dozen (13) -- to avoid being charged with fraud - for supplying less material than the customer had paid for. If you delivered more than the required 100 pounds, it made allowance for the possibility that some of the load was contaminated by, for example, water. The value of 112 pounds (or 8 stones) was an arbitary number set by Parliament.
 

johnnychips

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I have not read all the thread, but I remember being to be taught to divide into pounds, shillings and pence when I was aged 5. On slates. I am not making this up, it was in 1965, Miss Dane being my teacher. In 1971 when I was 10, they wheeled the black-and-white TV into the class to show the programmes called “Decimal 5” with the theme tune sung by The Scaffold.
 
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